Benidorm Live - it's going to be one big party say stars Kenneth and Joyce

Benidorm Live party heading to Palace Theatre, Manchester

SHERRIE Hewson and Tony Maudsley can hardly contain their excitement at the thought of bringing one of the most popular TV shows to the stage for the first time.

Benidorm Live will see Sherrie recreating her role as snooty hotel manager Joyce Temple-Savage and Tony bringing flamboyant hairdresser Kenneth DuBeke to Manchester.

After 10 award-winning series on ITV, Benidorm Live will be visiting the Palace Theatre as part of its first UK tour.

Set in the Spanish holiday resort and based around the activities at the Solaro Hotel, many familiar characters will be part of the stage show.

“You’ve basically got this big bumper episode with the icing on the cake of dance numbers and the fact that you, the audience, are part of the show,” said Tony.

Taking such a successful show on the road can be a gamble.

“We weren’t sure how it might work until we did a spot on the Royal Variety performance last November,” said Tony. “As soon as we got on stage we got this massive reaction which made us all realise ‘yes, this will work’.”

Benidorm Live has been written by Derren Litten, the man behind the TV series.

“He’s done a brilliant job,” said Sherrie. “It’s very different writing for the stage and he’s made the transition superbly.”

“When the script came I think we were all a bit worried,” said Tony. “As much as we trust Derren with the TV show, this was a path untrodden. But when I saw it, it’s basically the best episode of Benidorm I’ve ever read with extra bells and whistles on it.”

Tony has been part of the show since 2011 with Sherrie joining a year later so they are in a good position to analyse Benidorm’s appeal.

“It’s based on British people watching themselves having a good time and not apologising for it,” said Tony. “That is Benidorm. It’s working class people going out there and having an absolute ball, come as you like; everyone is accepted

“Brits love having a laugh at themselves and I think it’s a type of humour that went out of fashion for a while. In the 80s and 90s we started to have all this Oxbridge humour which we’d give a little smile to but nobody was belly-laughing any more. I think Derren was brave enough to bring back the fart joke and slipping on a banana skin.”

Sherrie added: “It’s almost like a Carry On film in style. It’s the kind of humour where everyone can join in.

“People have said to us it’s the one show where they can get the whole family together each week to watch it.”

The TV series are filmed in Spain.

“When we’re filming we are out there for four or five months,” said Tony, “so we all live together, we play together we have to work together. It is a cliché but it is this big family.”

A feature of Benidorm has been the number of familiar faces who have appeared in episodes over the years including Joan Collins and Cilla Black.

“We’re possibly the luckiest cast on the telly although that Death in Paradise looks quite cushy doesn’t it?” laughed Tony. “Then again, one of our make-up guy works on that show and says it’s too hot and there are too many mosquitoes.”

So have either Sherrie or Tony stayed at a hotel like the Solaro?

“My mum used take us to Benidorm when we were kids but I don’t remember anything like the Solaro,” she said.

“Oh I do,” said Tony. “It’s right up my alley. Bacon and sausage for breakfast, karaoke and daytime drinking. Oh I love all that. Having said that I probably wouldn’t go to Benidorm now because I wouldn’t get a minute’s peace.”

The show has achieved cult status in the Spanish resort.

“Sometimes we do go out as a cast while we’re filming and we’ve walked round the corner and we’ve bumped into ourselves. You get the stag and hen parties and they all have masks on of the characters and dress like us. That is very weird.”

Speaking of dress, Kenneth’s wardrobe of extra short shorts and dayglo T-shirts with slogans on is one of the more striking elements of the show.

“I actually have quite a say in that,” said Tony, “particularly the T-shirts. I pass the slogans on to Derren who trims them down and says I’m far too mucky and then they go to the show’s lawyers to make sure that are not too far or breaching anyone’s copyright.

“I actually go shopping for Kenneth quite a lot. I usually turn up with a little suitcase of Kenneth clothes. But let’s be honest a 50-year-old man shouldn’t be walking around like that.”

Sherrie added: “If the fans we meet in Benidorm are anything to go by there will be a lot of people dressed as the cast in the audience for the live shows. It’s going to be one very big party, we can’t wait.”

This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here